Promise
by royal destiny
Summary: Hotaru is getting married and Haruka realizes that she needs to get her daughter a present. That present comes in the form of a promise that she had made to her daughter back when she was nine. Will Haruka be able to keep that promise? Read to find out.


This is a story that I had originally written for my English class last semester. It has gone through three major re-writes to get it to be told from Haruka's POV. I hope that everyone enjoys this story.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

"talking" _flashback_

**Promise**

Today is the day of my daughter's wedding…she is marrying the man of dreams…today is the day that I might end up regretting for a long time. See I have been thinking for months what possible present I could get Hotaru, my daughter, that she would enjoy. The hard part is that I never know what exactly to get her. However, after much thought, I realized there was a promise that I never kept. I cannot let Hotaru know anything about this and so far I have been really good at keeping it a secret, but I'm not sure if I can anymore.

Hotaru is a twenty-four year old woman, who I still think of as a my little girl, and the promise that I did not keep happened on a fateful June night back when she was nine years old. That happened to be the same night that her mother left and never came back. See the promise that I made back on that day was that I promised Hotaru that her mother would come home.

That promise had not been kept until now. It is a funny story because it literally took me about ten minutes to convince Minako, who is one of my best friends and Hotaru's aunt, to help me since I knew that Michiru was still working within the music. It didn't take long to find Michiru and with Makoto, another one of my best friend's, went with me to see her.

That was one of the hardest things to do, especially since she was with Setsuna. That is the olive-skin, long-legged, tall, dark green-haired beauty that Michiru had left me for. Apparently they were still in as much love as ever, and that made me uncomfortable.

"_Michiru," I was not sure that I could do this, "I was wondering if it would be a problem if you came back home."_

"_I thought that after fifteen years, you would realize that I am not coming back home." Michiru stated. "So why did you come here?"_

_All of the sudden, I couldn't move or speak. I was sure that I was not going to be able to do this until I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard, "Michiru, the only reason that Haruka asked you to come back home is be-"_

"_Because Hotaru is getting married!" I blurted out. "I mean Hotaru is getting married and I would really like it if you came back home so that I could keep my promise."_

"_Of course I would." I was confused when I saw her smile. "I didn't even know that she was married."_

_I sighed everyone in the room knew the truth behind that since you cannot receive a wedding invite if no one has your address. "It is in two months and I know that our daughter would love it if you came."_

I never expected that she would come. I think that this would be a truly good present. Nothing would make me happier than for Hotaru to have both her parents at her wedding.

When I entered Hotaru's room, I was not expecting her to look so beautiful in her floor-length wedding dress. I walked in and sat down on my daughter's bed. "Do you know how beautiful you look?"

"Yes, I do." Hotaru turned around to look at me before saying, "I'm nervous. Maybe I shouldn't do this."

I smiled because I knew that she would feel that way. "It is ok. I'm pretty sure that you are suppose to feel that way."

"Are you sure?"

I was not entirely sure since I had never been married before, but if it was anything like the nerves that I felt when I use to race motocross, then that was what it was suppose to feel like. "It will be ok…I'm sure that it will." When Hotaru smiled, I knew that I made everything better. "Do you remember back when you were nine and I promised you something?"

Hotaru shook her head, "I don't remember anything."

I sighed. "Do you remember when your momma left?"

"Yeah, I do. That was really hard."

"I know it was firefly." I paused because I was not exactly sure how to tell her about the present, but figured that anyway would be good at this point. "The promise that I made to you the night she left…the promise that your momma would be home that she would be back before you went to bed."

It took Hotaru a few moments before it registered in her mind. "I forgot about that one, but why are you bringing this up now?"

I had no idea what to tell her. I did not know if I could really tell her, but since her present was downstairs waiting in the living room I knew that I had to do something. "I went looking for her a couple of months ago with your Aunt Makoto."

"What?!" I could tell that my daughter was shocked, but I did not know if it was just shocked or if that was combined with angered. "Why? She hurt us so much. Why would you do that?!"

There was the anger that I was afraid of…the anger that I knew she had to have in her about this. I gently took a hold of her hand, "I did this because you deserve both of our parents at this wedding."

"No, I don't want her here!!"

I was trying to stay calm, but it was really hard for me to do. "Listen, Hotaru, subconsciously you need her here. If I had not gone out and found her, then you would have regretted it. I did this because I know how much it will mean to you to have her here on this important day in your life."

Hotaru stood up before yelling, "I guess you forgive her too! I guess you forgive the fact that she left us for your best friend and my aunt!!"

"I haven't forgiven her, but I know enough that I need to put all that aside for one day." I couldn't help, but to sigh again. "I will probably never forgive her, but as we speak Michiru is downstairs waiting for us." It was weird, but when I saw Hotaru sit down on the chair by her desk, I felt that she was afraid. This had to be the craziest thing that I could think because it did not make sense after she had been so angry.

"Poppa," I heard Hotaru whisper, "what if I truly don't want her here?"

"Well, you are going to have to suck it up and pretend like you do." You know everything is going downhill when that is all you have to give. "Just be nice and by the end of the day, I'm sure you'll change your mind."

When I saw Hotaru stand up, I knew that the two of us were ready to head downstairs. Once again I grabbed a hold of her hand and this it was out of the sheer need of comfort. As we rounded the corner to go down the stairs, I was not sure which one of us was more afraid. All I knew was that I could hear Makoto talking to Michiru and I could feel myself shaking inside with fear. When we reached the bottom of the steps, Hotaru squeezed my hand and smiled. For us, this was a big step.

"Nothing has really changed since I left." That is what I heard Michiru say and I could not believe it. Everything had changed from the color of paint on the wall to the furniture to even the appliances…nothing was the same anymore and trust me I was alright with that.

"Actually," I heard my daughter say, "a lot has changed since you abandoned us for her!"

I saw my daughter point to someone. It was then I realized that Setsuna was there too. I did not think that Michiru would have bought her, but then again I should have figured that would happen. "I'm happy that you could make it Setsuna." That was the nicest thing that I could say at the moment.

The living room fell into an uncomfortable silence with Hotaru, Makoto, and me on one side of the room and other two across from us. Makoto and I knew that Setsuna would not say anything since she knew where her place was…well…that and the fact she knew she was unwelcomed.

After a few moments, I heard my daughter say, "I'm not going to be happy to see you…I'm not even sure I want you here, but since you are Poppa's present…you can stay."

I felt a little guilty when Michiru's eyes started to tear up, but only a little bit. "I want to thank you for coming Michiru," I paused again since I was unsure of myself, "this means a lot to us."

"You're welcome Haruka."

That was all that we said to each other and I could not blame anyone for the way they acted just now. I knew that this went a lot better than I thought and for that I was grateful. As we made our way to the church, I knew this would be a moment that Hotaru would thank me for later. Now, all I had to do was make it through the day without crying. That is going to be my new promise to Hotaru. It is the promise not to cry at the wedding…although…I am pretty sure that I will end up breaking that promise.

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Let me know what you thought of the story. I hope everyone enjoyed it.


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